Tips for Top Models and Top Model
April 2, 2009 by Erin Balser
I think it’s safe to say that this cycle of America’s Next Top Model has been pretty underwhelming. Sure, there’s been a few moments of promise (can we say Celia and Tahlia showdown?) but overall, the girls have been meh, their photos have been meh and the drama has been meh. Hopefully now that Sandra’s gone, the drama will be amped up a notch or two.
Thankfully, a couple websites have taken it upon themselves to offer advice to the contestants on the show and to the show itself.
E! Online offers wannabe top models five major tips to make them stand out in a crowd, including taking up a cause, owning your makeover, being evil, dressing like a model and fighting through your illness.
Entertainment Weekly goes straight to the source and offers up Tyra and her production crew five suggestions as to how to improve the show. They think photo shoots with real prizes, having the girls choose their own best and worst photos, getting rid of Miss J and amping up the Paulina factor are keys to saving the show.
What do you think of each of these lists? What would you tell the contestants – or Tyra – if you could give one piece of advice to improve the show?
Image: The CW © 2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
There’s a thread like this on at least one of the forums I post at. E! pretty much is saying what most of us who follow this show know. As for the EW recommendations, I adore Paulina and you can tell she thinks Tyra is nuts and has said that this show is not about really finding a model in the first place (heh). I always like her segments because she does the stuff that Tyra did in the early cycles before she became absolutely nuts. Miss J is pretty useless on panel. If he’d actually spend time teaching the girls to walk, I’d tolerate him more but from what McKey and others have said, that one epi we see of him teaching them, is all the instruction they get on runway walking. Having them pick their best/worst photo is also a good idea that’s been discussed on the forums as well and I like the idea of the prizes (I think MMaS does something like that). But I also think that people know it’s not a real modeling show and like the tacky quality of it. There are a lot of people who’ve said if they wanted to look at a real modeling show they’d look at MMaS or one of the international Top model shows like Germany or Australia. Me I’d be happy with real photoshoots that correspond to fashion mags and not Tyra’s warped version of them, like the meat locker shoot. The real shoot was edgy and Tyra’s version was tacky. I’d also put Mr. Jay on panel as he does nothing as artistic director and let the photogs direct the girls, you know, like they would in real life; like the shoot Heather did with Matthew Ralston or even C11’s shoot with Russell James.
They should change the host. Heidi Klum would be better, but then she’s in GNTM.
Cw can’t changed the host, unless Tyra quits and she wants a new host. I think Top model at this point is just there. I’m not that interested to actually think of things they should change. I’m just watching, not because I think the girls are models, but because it’s just a fun to show, I love photo aspect of the show, good or bad. Maybe Tyra can tone down the “Tyraness” of the show. But there’s nothing they can change to actually make huge models, let’s just enjoy the clashy(classy trashy) reality show that is Top Model
Of course they can’t change Tyra, she created the show. Hahaha.
Some of us have said that since Tyra really seems to treat this show as an afterthought and is more focused on her talkshow, that as producer she could relinquish some control. Including letting Paulina take over the hosting duties since she’s sane and actually seems helpful. Or barring that, step back from the photoshoot ideas and let Mr. Jay have more control over those (look at CNTM and compare what he does there to what he does on ANTM via Tyra regarding the photoshoot ideas). No, this show is never going to be taken seriously and is considered a joke by the modeling industry but right now it’s just totally cheesy and has a been there, done that before type feeling to it.
put paulina in charge
let tyra do her talkshow
do more high fashion
cycle 8 had very good photoshoot concepts. are they just running out of ideas?
i think tyra should stay. but they should get rid of orange jay at the very least, and give sutan a bigger part. maybe get rid of nigel, too, he’s getting a bit boring. panel isn’t interesting without a bitchy person!